European society is ageing very fast. There is a challenge to educate older people about steps which they should undertake to keep a healthy and active life. Participation in regular, moderate physical activity can delay functional declines. However, a high proportion of older people in most countries lead sedentary lives. The project consortium proposes solutions to make seniors aware of healthy living guidelines, to teach them about proper nutrition, to help them to design their own personal healthy living plans and to advise them about safe and effective exercise.

To achieve these objectives the partners will produce a research report describing the needs of seniors for the key components of a healthy active living programme; will provide the content of a healthy living course; create an on-line personal healthy living planner available for thousands of seniors that will include graphical representations of goals, progress and achievements; will offer innovative healthy living educational courses for elderly people; will train instructors working with seniors; will provide a manual for setting up active ageing centres; will start active ageing campaign and will organize a major seniors sports event combined with a valorization event for 500 seniors and decision makers.

The project will make an impact on more than 2000 people. From the main target group 50+ seniors, 100 will receive face-to-face Healthy Active Living training and an additional 500 through a personal on-line planner. Over 60 instructors will receive training during and after the project duration. Other groups which will be reached during and after the project duration are active ageing organizations, seniors instructors, staff working in partners’ organizations, other consortiums working on activate ageing projects, universities conducting research on active ageing, general practitioners working with seniors, publishers of sport and nutrition periodicals related to active ageing and decision makers.

Results of the project

The EU-funded project “Active I – Healthy Active Living for Seniors” aims to promote behaviour change to a more healthy and active lifestyle for older adults. To reach this goal, the international project consortium consisting of eight partners from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Germany and Israel as well as the European Group of Research into Elderly and Physical Activity (EGREPA) as an associated partner, produced three key project outcomes:

AGRUPATION FOR THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PROMOTION OF THE RURAL EMPLOYMENT (ADESPER) founded in 2000, is a Non Profit National Organization with Legal Personality; it was founded as “Association”.

CO&SO Empoli is a social enterprise born in 2002 as II° level organisation of social cooperation. It is a private entity that pursues public goals, acting as a privileged interlocutor for its own Community.